Many years ago, aged about 12, I became interested in bird watching. Browsing through nature books in my local library I came across a book published the previous year. Called “Happy Countryman”, I took it home. The first few words of Roberts’ lyrical and atmospheric writing forever hooked me into natural history. The wonderful descriptionsContinue reading “Old Environmental Thoughts”
Category Archives: monochrome
Winter Seas
Waves come crashing to grey sullen shores.Powerful and strong, it breathes and roars.Cascading and caressing each grain of sand,A warm embrace between sea and land. High above, a seagull soars high.Wings of purity it spreads to fly.Battling high against darkened cloud,In a wind that blows fiercely, flying graceful and proud.Poem by Edel T. Copeland
Whitby
Beyond the yachts, a glimpse of the Whitby Swing Bridge over the River Esk in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. Apart from its links to Dracula, the town is also famous for Captain Cook who moved there from Staithes where he had been an apprentice to a draper. The young man was besotted by the sea,Continue reading “Whitby”
Wild Beauty
Evening on the lagoon at Gruissan, in Languedoc-Roussillon, France.
Beckett’s Reprise
“Moonlight is sculpture: seen and easily discerned in good composition like a suspension bridge, where each line adds strength and takes none away.” The exquisite lines of the Samuel Beckett Bridge, designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava, crossing the River Liffey in Dublin under a cloud moonlit sky.
Nocturnal Balcón de Europa
On a deserted Balcon illuminated by moonlight there are just four people visible. Three are unknown, the one on the extreme left is a sculpture of the late king Alfonso XII who actually named the balcony during a visit after the big earthquake that hit Nerja in 1884, observing that “this is the Balcón deContinue reading “Nocturnal Balcón de Europa”
A Winter’s Day
In a deep and dark December” … Especially then. The Balcon de Europa in Nerja, where the light is often sublime, is a great place to wait and hope someone will do ‘stuff’. Cycling, walking, sitting, winter calisthenics, or watch the setting sun. All you need is a camera and patience….
Life Savers
Early morning and “Doris Bleasdale”, the Clogherhead Lifeboat completes a beach landing near its base in County Louth, Ireland.
Fandango
Scaramouch, Scaramouch will you do the Fandango? asked a well known royal and mercuric figure.
The Sea…
Waves and shafting sunbeams over the Celtic Sea as it fringes County Waterford. It was while searching through some infrequently visited files, for today’s image, that I found two forgotten videos. Compiled some six years ago as creative exercises to learn the art of videos, the black and white images lend themselves to a filmContinue reading “The Sea…”
Running the Storm
One running man and two flying seagulls in Nerja
The Celtic Sea
The gleaming Celtic Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean located off of the southern coast of Ireland was named by an English marine biologist (no less) in 1921 during a meeting of fisheries experts. Nearby Celtic regions have their own names for it; in Irish it’s “An Mhuir Cheilteach”, in Welsh “Y Môr Celtaidd”, Cornish:Continue reading “The Celtic Sea”
Angel of the North
The Angel of the North, believed to be the largest sculpture of an angel in the world, reduces its solitary visitor to a Lilliputian scale.
Rocca Calascio
Rocca Calascio, a mountaintop fortress at 1,460 metres (4,790 ft) is the highest fortress in the Italian Apennines, overlooking the Plain of Navelli at one of the highest points in the ancient Barony of Carapelle.
Wild Swimming
A lone figure on the Embalse de los Bermejelas, near Arenas del Rey, Granada Province in Spain’s Andalucia.
The Atlantic
From Ireland’s County Clare Coast…sea area Shannon…shipping forecast…visibility “good”
Le Petit Café
The delightful Art Nouveau facade of Le Petit Café de Collioure in the south of France.
Minerve and the Cathars
A decorative wrought iron cross next to the Marie’s (mayor’s) office in Minerve, a village in the Hérault department of southern France; in which a group of refugees sought shelter in the village after the massacre of kinfolk at nearby Béziers in 1210. Followers of Catharism – a Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14thContinue reading “Minerve and the Cathars”
Architectural Points 2
The iconic roof of the new museum opened near the entrance of Dublin’s Glasnevin cemetery, soars heavenwards; and below, a marble wall reflecting a Celtic cross.
Architectural Points 1
The contemporary architecture of Dublin City Council’s Civic Offices. Built on Wood Quay, the scheme caused disquiet amongst conservationists, when it became apparent that the entire plot was a major archaeological site, the very core of the Viking settlement over which Brian Boru had lost his life in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
George Munday Creative 